


The Catch

by AUniversalStandstill



Series: Bucky and Clyde, and by Clyde I mean Steve [2]
Category: Captain America (Movies)
Genre: Background - Freeform, Established Relationship, M/M, Skinny Steve, a lil angst, bonnie and clyde au, mentions of organized crime??, terminal illness mentioned, world building practice
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-02
Updated: 2018-05-02
Packaged: 2019-05-01 09:39:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,240
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14517678
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AUniversalStandstill/pseuds/AUniversalStandstill
Summary: There’s always a catch, isn’t there? In those fairytale endings, there’s always something hiding in the castle. Dirty men like Bucky don’t get happy endings. They don’t get angels to hold on to.





	The Catch

Sometimes, Bucky thinks he doesn’t deserve this. He’s got dirty hands, made a lot of deals in his day. He’s clawed and fought and bled for everything he’s got. And maybe that’s why he doesn’t think he should be able to hold someone so precious and perfect and pretty as Stevie. But Stevie’s the only the only thing that’s ever really been his to hold. And now Stevie might leave him.

There’s always a catch, isn’t there? In those fairytale endings, there’s always something hiding in the castle. Dirty men like Bucky don’t get happy endings. They don’t get angels to hold on to.

And so maybe that’s why he’s out at 3 am, breaking into the back of Barton’s Drug Store. There’s an unfilled prescription in his left hand and a beat-up pistol in his right, one he nicked from a buddy who’d fought in the war. He’s got to hold onto this angel as long as he can.

The lock on the window is easy enough to break, and near no one is out roaming at this hour, even in Queens. No, the real problem comes when he’s got to find Stevie’s medicine. He thought he’d recognize it when he saw it, after years of dosing it out to his boy, but all the little white pills look the same in the dark, and he can’t make out the doctor’s handwriting on the prescription. 

“Shit.” He slams a hand down on the counter. “Shit shit shit.” He’s so damn close, but not close enough. And then the lights turn on, and Bucky about jumps out of his skin. “Shit.” 

“Very eloquent, Barnes.” A woman steps out from the doorframe. “You think of that all by yourself?” Her red hair is up in curlers, and her black silk robe hangs loosely around her shoulders. It’s patched at the elbows, but it’s a scrap of what life used to be like, and you’d have to be loony to give up even the littlest luxuries in times like these. Natasha Romanov-Barton ran the shop with her husband, and lived upstairs. They had been friends with him and Stevie, but that feels like another life. Any other time, he’d be happy to see her. But not here, and certainly not tonight.

“Hey Nat.” he smiles sheepishly. “Nice night, isn’t it?”

“Would you like to tell me what you’re doing in my store at 3 in the goddamn morning?” She crosses her arms over her chest and leans against the pharmacy counter that separates the two of them.

“Not really.”

“Cut the shit, Barnes. And for god’s sakes, put the gun down, would you? You’re gonna blow a hole through your foot if you grip that thing any tighter.” Bucky frowns, but places his gun on the counter between them. Natasha yawns and stretches. “Thank you. Now, I’m gonna go upstairs and get a cup of coffee, and then we’re gonna have a nice talk about breaking and entering. And I swear to god if you wake up Clint with all this noise, I’ll gut you.” She shuts the lights back off and heads up the staircase before calling over her shoulder, “Need anything?”

“Yeah. Coffee, please.” He yawns, and it feels like the weight of the world is on his eyelids. “Extra dark.”

 

Under the bright overhead light of Natasha’s apartment kitchenette, Bucky can see Nat’s eyes watching him when she thinks he doesn’t notice. He knows he looks different. He’s lost weight; gotten paler, sadder. You’d think he was the sick one, not Stevie.

“You know you could’ve just called, right?” Nat says, setting a mug down in front of Bucky. “And we open at 9 every morning.”

“Yeah.” Bucky scrubs his eyes and picks up the warm mug. Heat floods his frozen fingers and he smiles appreciatively. 

“And you know you and Steve are family, right? Me and Clint could’ve just gotten you whatever you needed. No questions asked.” Her face softens. “Are you two… doing okay?” She asks gently.

“Yeah.” He forces out a grin, but it falls flat. “No, actually. We’re not.” She’s always been able to call his bluff, even when they were kids. “Stevie’s still sick.”

Natasha opens her mouth, and then closes it again. She sits across from him and downs her cup of coffee in one go. 

“Barnes, you haven’t picked up his medication in months.” She says slowly, refusing to meet his eyes.

“I know.” He says.

“And he’s still sick?”

“Yes.”

“He told me he was okay.” She finally meets his eyes, and they burn into Bucky’s mind. “You’d better have a damn good reason you didn’t pick up his medication.”

“We couldn’t afford them anymore.” He says, and this time he’s the one who can’t look up. The depression hit everyone hard, but guys like him and Stevie were hit the hardest. “I told him I’d get another job, take out another loan, anything. He wouldn’t let me. Said he could take care of himself.” Nat’s eyes glaze over. “You know, when they told Stevie he was gonna die, I knew it’d kill us both. I just never thought it'd be so soon.” He lets out a laugh so he doesn’t start crying.

“James Barnes, I could throttle you.”

“I know.”

Natasha sighs, and runs a hand over her face, and that’s when Bucky knows his world is about to shift. Nat is never unsure, never phased. 

“Okay Barnes, you wanna know how I’ve kept this place afloat all this time?” she asks him, and looks straight into his soul. Barton’s had a steady business before the depression hit, and it had kept up after, even when the rest of the neighborhood had seemed to fall apart. 

“You mean it ain’t just your natural charm, Nat?” Bucky asks, but he can see the edge of ice in her eyes.

“I’m not playing with you, Buck. This is serious.” She swats at his arm, but it’s not meant to hurt. “I started running with a couple of guys, doing a few holdups, other little jobs. You know ‘em from down at the docs. Howard and Jarvis.” 

“You mean like… organized crime?”

“Don’t act so dainty, Barnes. I know what you’ve been in. Hell, you were fixin’ to rob me an hour ago.” Bucky ducks his head in shame.

“But it keeps your head above water?”

“Yes sir.” She grabs the still war coffee pot. “You need a refill?”

“What I need is a job.” He says, and he knows he’s not being subtle, but he’s a desperate man.

“We could always use a few extra pairs of hands.” She hums nonchalantly. “You and Stevie could be an asset.” 

Bucky’s head whips around to stare at her. “You don’t really think you can hide anything from Steve, do you?”

“You’re hiding from Clint, aren’t you?” Nat grips the coffee pot just a little tighter.

“Fine. Just you then. We’ve got our eyes on a job right now. Could keep you afloat for a couple months at least if the payout is as good as we think.”

And there’s the catch. It isn’t that Steve is sick. It’s not that Bucky can’t save him. It’s that Bucky can. But he’ll have to hurt Stevie to do it.

“We don’t tell him.” Bucky says with a finality that catches them both off-guard. 

“Your choice.” She says “But you better get going. The suns coming up.”

**Author's Note:**

> This is kind of different from what I normally do. It's a lot more plot-based, I guess and I usually like focusing more on characters, but I really like this AU and I want to build it up into something.


End file.
